Andreas

How would a Kea phrase that?

Drunken Kiwis. Yikes. Fortunately enough they are in New Zealand, where only the Ngutuparore and JonS can hear them retch. BTW - I am thinking of starting a collection for you poor and hapless chaps down-under. You can not even afford your own Magpies, and have to make do with the Australian one. Probably been transported, hasn't it?

Maybe - but the Germans did not even try. Also, the issue is not that the whole army should be able to move truck-bound. None of the WW2 armies could have done that. Instead, it is whether you have your logistical elements down to platoon level motorised (the British had achieved that from about 1939 with the exception of a cavalry division), and whether you can move forces at the point of main effort motorised (as e.g. the Red Army did during Bagration and later). This the western armies achieved completely, and the Red Army sufficiently. The issue is not whether every Gefreiter should have had their own KdF vehicle and a Blitzmädel as driver.

I see you did not bother to get a HDD? Smart move, since it would fail soon anyway. Not that I'm bitter about it.

I just came back from Rome. It was almost as cold as Paris. It is nice to know that it will be warmer when I go next time.

Had a cheapo PC once. While it was nice to be able to play IL-2, it was not nice to have a complete and total HDD crash less than five months after buying it.

I like the 'rod' company. That has a nice touch to it, and reminds me of my time in the UK. I am sailing... I am saaaaiiiilllliiiinnnngggg Imagine it being sung by a company of Rods. With a company of blonde bimbos in tow. Ahem... Anyway, I am not sure if learning German might not be easier than learning to understand the output of these online translators.

You are, but we expect that.

It is amazing how quickly gas central heating works. I wonder what they did in the olden days to keep warm.

So you would (contrary to your previous post) say that they calling him a 'sexist pig' is not bullcrap? Since that is not asking for punishment, it is merely a statement of honest opinion, no doubt offered with no malice aforethought. BTW - why are you so convinced that the Harvard president was engaged in scientific speculation, and why do you assume he was surprised by the reaction? I would be surprised if either was the case. To me it looks like he was deliberatly trying to provoke this reaction. He can not possibly be so naive that he would not know what he would reap?

Yet you claim the authority to judge that the womens groups' protest was/is inappropriate and bullcrap. I am sure the groups don't see their demands as bullcrap, and probably don't think that they would offend you when they make them. Therefore, according to your logic, it is just you as the listener who has a problem, not they as the ones making the staement, and following your logic, you have no business deriding them for their choice of demands from/statements about the president of Harvard. Why should they be under any obligation to pander to your taste? Sweet irony.

No you haven't.

Small wonder if they start messing with the Elves. Anyone who watched LOTR could have told them that. Mefinks you mean the Argonne forest?

Sometimes when I walk pase the Ecole Militaire on my way home from work, I realise what a massive building it is. I think it gets shortchanged by having to compete for attention with the Eiffel Tower.

Odd -- if asked to rank these in order of likely offensiveness I'd have put them the other way round, because "Jap" is merely a contraction, while "Kraut" involves making a generalisation about the cultural habits (in this case, culinary) of an entire nation. </font>

Almost certainly confusion.

To me the use of the shorthand 'jap' is different from the use of the shorthand 'Kraut', because the former is very closely connected to racist propaganda during WW II. I still think that both are showing a clear lack of respect for the group they describe, but 'Jap', to me at least, has far more aggressive undertones because of the propaganda. That makes it different as a shorthand from 'Brit', 'Aussie', or 'Canuck'. Although again, in polite conversation I would not use either of these. The term 'Rebs' seems to be very different from 'Japs' to me, because it has almost honorific connotations. It is also more convenient to say 'nigger', instead of African American, BTW, and you only have to type six letters instead of fifteen.

The other Challenger I doubt you will find better info on this anywhere else.

A boring 35 minutes either way, which is to be expected, Paris traffic and the Peripherique being what it is. Need I emphasise 'boring'? No? I did not think so either.

How can I argue with that. Let me instead tell you that Seanachai did a superb job in taking me to CDG and back today, a total ride of 70km. Astonishing, innit?

It's bloody small outside too. My guess is the Soviets liked it because it was small, heavily armoured for its day, and came with a radio. I.e. the perfect recon tank, apart from the fact that it is only slightly less fast than a foot-sore penguin waddling across the Wedell Shelf.

I participated in a video-satellite-link press conference today. It was weird. I can not recommend it. Almost as bad as phone conferences. There is no substitute for going somewhere yourself and telling people how you feel about them. Unless it is violating the libel laws in those places.

It won't. Trust me.

Err - I have played the game a few times. I never saw any survivors in a catastrophic explosion. You also tend to lose any embarked infantery units. If you are talking about a simple brew-up, that is quite another story.

Well, excuse me, Mr Brad Pitt, but this picture, doesn't exactly put Paris, France at the top of my holiday destination list. </font>